Reviews by johanlefourbe

Since I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, after watching the rather abysmal ‘Spenser Confidential’ and ‘Mile 22’, it was rather satisfying to see that, at some point, Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg actually knew what they were doing. Indeed, at the time, their gimmick was to tell together some real-life stories (see also 'Deepwater Horizon' and 'Lone Survivor') and I have to admit that, each time, they really nailed it. In this case, I was actually rather impressed by the beginning scenes. Indeed, Berg gave each set of characters just a few minutes each but he still managed to properly introduce them in a very organic and believable way. To be honest, I was rather surprised that Wahlberg was actually the only one playing a fictional character but it did explain how this cop was pretty much always around at the most crucial moments. At least, he didn't end up playing one of these super-cops solving the whole case by himself, in fact, Wahlberg was actually quite vulnerable in a few scenes and, in the process, he probably gave here one of his best performances. Concerning the story itself, even though I was aware of this tragedy, I didn't really know how it really went down in details and, once again, I was fairly impressed by the approach chosen by Peter Berg. Indeed, it seems that they went really into details to reproduce these events so, at times, it did have a nice documentary feeling, but there were also some really tensed moments so, the end-result was a highly realistic thriller which was quite spellbinding to behold. To be honest, even if I understand why they did add a supplement at the end of the movie where interviews with real life people were shown, it did feel overly patriotic and, somehow, it turned these tragic events into some kind of PR operation for the city of Boston in particular and for the USA in general. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was maybe not a masterpiece, it was still a very well made thriller based on actual events and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but, somehow, I still ended up watching it. Well, to be honest, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. First of all, the whole concept of ‘What if the Yeti did really exist and was actually afraid of us? ‘ was hardly original and didn’t excite me much. To make things worse, the beginning scene was borderline cringe-inducing to behold and, for a while, I was thinking that the damned thing might turn out to be actually seriously dreadful. Fortunately, from the moment Percy started to sing an hilarious version of ‘Under Pressure’ (pretty much the only song I did like eventually), it seemed that there might be some hope after all. Indeed, as long as the movie focused on the new relationship between Migo and Percy, it was actually fairly entertaining and I did appreciate the fact that they couldn’t understand each other which was quite refreshing. Unfortunately, as soon as they got back to Migo’s village, Percy suddenly grew a conscience and, above all, they didn’t further develop their relationship which was the only thing which was slightly worthwhile. Instead, the whole plot went completely on auto-pilot until the end and it was all pretty tedious, I'm afraid. Anyway, to conclude, even though the whole thing was rather harmless, except if you have some young kids to entertain, I would advise you to skip it, even if you have a weak spot for such animated features like I do. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though the concept was not bad, to be honest, it was nothing extremely original or interesting and it didn’t help that the characters spent half of the running time discussing themselves this concept. To make thing worse, the other half of the plot was about some evil scientist who wanted to kidnap them which was pretty much the most generic thing they could find. And, yet, the damned thing definitely had some potential. One thing really enjoyable was the constant melancholia displayed by this group of immortals. Indeed, Gina Prince-Bythewood chose this approach to show that even if these very special fighters were pretty badass, they were above all really sad and, if their body could easily heal, their soul never stopped hurting. Furthermore, Charlize Theron gave another really strong performance and, following her heralded work in ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and ‘Atomic Blonde’, she might even become another iconic action movie star if she keeps getting such juicy roles. Next to her, I was also really impressed by KiKi Layne, a young actress who apparently just started in the business a few years ago. Indeed, Layne always kept her cool next to a seasoned veteran like Theron and, as long as the movie was focusing on their characters, it was much more entertaining to behold. Concerning the rest of the team, Matthias Schoenaerts did have a couple of decent scenes but his character was pretty much ruined after he betrayed his team for some rather dubious reasons. Concerning the last 2 guys in the team, well, they only stood out because they were gay so they were obviously barely developed whatsoever. Anyway, to conclude, even if I wasn’t really impressed by the damned thing, it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a nice cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, eventually, even though the damned thing definitely had some potential, I’m afraid it was a little bit too much to chew on for Ewan McGregor for his first directing effort. Afterwards, I was wondering why McGregor didn’t follow the examples of Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. Indeed, for their first directing effort, they respectively delivered ‘Nil by Mouth’ and ‘The War Zone’ and one of the reasons these 2 movies worked so well was the fact that Oldman and Roth made movies about an environment they were both familiar with. On the other hand, McGregor, a guy who grew up in Scotland in the 80’s, decided for some reason to make a movie taking place in the US during the 60’s which was probably not the best idea. Furthermore, McGregor was rather miscast and, for this role, I think that someone like a younger Tom Cruise would have been a better choice. However, the main issue was probably that he struggled with the story itself. Indeed, it was quite complex and it was supposed to be dealing with the psychological turmoil lived by these 3 characters but, unfortunately, that was something that McGregor barely managed to scratch. I mean, this golden couple was kind, patient, not conservative whatsoever, and, yet, from the very start, there was something going on with their kid but they never dug really far enough. I mean, at some point, there was a rather ridiculous session with a speech therapist arguing that the young girl might be jealous of her mother. Seriously, since when a speech therapist might have the required skills to detect and diagnose some kind of Oedipal complex? It seemed completely way off base and it was never properly developed afterwards. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie was pretty much a failure for McGregor as a director, it was still an intriguing story though and I think it is worth a look. 

Since this movie had been a huge critical and commercial flop, I wasn’t expecting much but since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, maybe because I had such low expectation, but I didn’t think it was so bad after all. However, it doesn’t mean that it was really good either though. Indeed, following the disappointing ‘Apocalypse’, I thought they would go for a reboot in a couple of years since most of the actors involved seemed to be pretty much done with this franchise so I was rather surprised that they were coming up  with another sequel. At least, there was then the hope that they might end up on a higher note. Unfortunately, for some reason, they made the bewildering choice of telling once again the story of Jean Grey becoming the Dark Phoenix. Sure, it is apparently a classic story in the comic-books but it had already been done with ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ so the whole endeavour felt rather misguided and completely unnecessary. Anyway, as a result, this last instalment turned out to be the weakest of the bunch. It's too bad because it was rather promising that they killed off Raven fairly early in the movie but this tragic event was rather poorly handled and felt therefore really anticlimactic. Another issue was Jessica Chastain’s character who was such a bland and generic bad guy and, in my opinion, this character could have been actually easily removed. In fact, one of the few interesting things in this movie was the fact that, while he meant well, Charles Xavier probably f*cked up Jean Grey and maybe some other young mutants with his approach and I think it was a huge missed opportunity when they did not focus on this. Indeed, the fact that a seemingly good man could loose his way and mess up the people he was supposed to help in the first place sounded quite fascinating but, unfortunately, this movie obviously preferred instead to follow the most pedestrian path available. Finally, the last thing that bothered me with this movie was the fact that there were just way too many mutants involved. Seriously, for example, was it really necessary to bring Magneto in this tale? Eventually, it shows how difficult it is to have so many super-heroes in one movie and, except for the MCU, it seems that nobody else is able to actually pull it off. Anyway, to conclude, I was probably generous with my rating here, I guess it was still watchable though, but there is no doubt that it was one of the most useless and misguided sequels ever made.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was suggested by one of my favorite Listal members, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though the beginning was intriguing, unfortunately, from the moment that Charlotte drugged Lizzie and had her cut off her own hand, well, the whole thing pretty much lost me. Obviously, it won’t be the first twist in this movie as it would seem at first that Lizzie would to try to get her revenge from Charlotte but, before the final act, both girls would be eventually turning against Anton, their mentor. Obviously, at some point, Charlotte would finally explain her drastic action but, even so, it didn’t make much sense to me. At the end of the day, the ultimate goal was pretty much to make Anton pay for was he did but was it really necessary to mutilate Lizzie in the process? In this case, it seems that Charlotte could have pretty much skipped this part of her plan. I guess the makers wanted to show that, ultimately, everybody involved in this twisted tale, perpetrators and victims, had become eventually batsh*t crazy. There was also a good amount of shock value involved and an almost constant desire to mislead the viewers but both gimmicks were rather overused in my opinion. Eventually, if the idea of turning ‘Whiplash’ into a gory horror flick might be appealing to you, you will probably enjoy this movie more than I did. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch, I especially enjoyed the chemistry between Allison Williams and Logan Browning, and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I had no idea what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. I was wondering if it was the first movie I saw directed by Chris Rock and, to be honest, I have to admit that I completely forgot that I saw years ago ‘I Think I Love My Wife’. Well, this movie was a big improvement on his previous directing effort but I was still not really convinced though. I mean, I did have some potential and, for at least half of the duration, it was rather unclear what was the goal of the makers but it made the whole thing actually quite intriguing. Unfortunately, when it turned out that the whole point was to make the main character fall in love with this journalist, I was rather disappointed by how generic and lame the outcome turned out to be after all. It’s too bad because there were some good ideas and some strong scenes. For example, it was a rather simple but effective trick to have constantly the people in the street calling the main character ‘Hammy’, as it displayed the pressure of being a celebrity in the process and how dehumanizing it can be. The scene where Andre Allen went back to his relatives to hang out with them was also really neat. Unfortunately, pretty much everything focusing on Chelsea Brown’s private life was rather misguided and should have been removed in my opinion. I mean, I don’t blame Rosario Dawson, she was charming as usual, but the focus should have been on Chris Rock’s character but, on the other hand, the whole fact that they fell in love was rather underwhelming to me, when it was actually the whole point of this movie. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Chris Rock’s work. 

I wasn’t exactly blown away by ‘John Wick’ but since this sequel had been even more successful at the box-office, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, once again, I was hardly impressed by Wick’s new adventure. In fact, I think that the first instalment was more spectacular but I have to admit that I barely remember it in details, except that Keanu Reeves did kill a whole bunch of goons in the most badass way possible. Well, in this sequel, he once again finished off more than 100 guys and a few women but I don’t think it was as entertaining as all the fans of this franchise claim it to be. I mean, I did like the 2 fight scenes with Common because the guy also had some skills but pretty much everyone else was some faceless thug who got shot within a split second. Concerning the story itself, even though John Wick was supposedly retired and would like to stay that way, obviously, they found a way to bring him back in the game and, apparently, it would get only worse for him from this point but that’s all what the fans of this franchise want to see so that’s all good. At least, they didn’t give him an annoying sidekick so the guy really remains a lone wolf which I did appreciate but the downside is that, eventually, he only had a few fleeting conversations with a handful of characters who were completely underdeveloped. Anyway, to conclude, even if I don’t really get the passion around this franchise, I have to admit that it was a well-made and all-around solid action flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since I always had a weak spot for Benicio Del Toro, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, it was rather tricky to watch this flick after ‘Narcos’ which gave such a fascinating immersive look into the life of the notorious Drug baron. On the other hand, the Netflix TV-show did provide some handy background information and it did help to better understand what happened to Escobar back then. Concerning the story itself, I was wondering if it was based on facts but it turned out to be actually a fiction. However, it didn’t matter and this tale definitely had some potential. Unfortunately, the mixed chronology was a mistake though. Indeed, it is usually a misguided gimmick and, here, it definitely did not work. I mean, many viewers complained that we didn’t see much Del Toro who gave here another really strong performance but the movie was actually not about Escobar himself but about an average kid who somehow got sucked into his world. However, each scene featuring Del Toro clearly established his character while the useless back-and-forth in time wasted some precious running time which should have been used to develop more the main character, how he did end up in this position and what he felt during the process. Eventually, Josh Hutcherson did get some blame but I don’t think he was so bad after all, in fact, he had some decent chemistry with Claudia Traisac and, above all, he wasn’t help by this approach. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.